World of Warcraft Gold Farming: Gathering Skills - WoW Wages

What are your tradeskills? It doesn't matter all that much which two you use - as long as you do use them - if you don't, you're throwing away real money, all the time you play.

Every time you pass something you could gather, but miss out on the opportunity - that is gold you could have had. There's always going to be a demand. Tradeskills are such a long-term earner that it's worth putting some serious thought into them.

Crafting skills can make you cash, but for anyone serious about making World of Warcraft gold, gathering is the way to go - and here's why: it's passive, part of your character. A crafting skill can be used whenever needed, but a gathering skill is used whenever you play.

Not only that - but crafting skills tend to get used less than you'd think, and selling the goods gained from them is certainly an effort. Crafting skills are far more expensive and difficult to level too. Need I go on?

Contrary to what most people might think there are fourgathering skills in the World of Warcraft:

Herbalism.

Mining.

Skinning.

Enchanting.

Most people would miss enchanting off the list, but all those BoP greens-through-purples are worth a lot more to you dusted than vendored. So in a way this is both crafting and gathering. Enchanting is particularly useful when levelling from 1 to 70, as you encounter a lot more useless quest rewards.

The one skill I'd really reccomend out of these is herbalism. Why? It's pretty boring. Simple economics. A lot of people take blacksmithing, engineering or leatherworking - which forces them to take mining or skinning. The whole alchemy/herbalism route is far less popular. What's more - the demand for crafted armor is limited, and will deteriate (along with the market for the mats) as a server ages.

The market for herbs and potions will increase steadily - with more and more consumables required, and an ongoing supply needed. WoW Gold. If you're going to take a gathering/crafting combination - alchemy and herbalism are definitely the ones to go for. Alchemy has an added bonus, in that you get a transmute cooldown, which is valuable in itself - unlike most crafting skills.

So - herbalism comes highly reccomended, but what else? Well - alchemy is an option, or there's engineering (NOT a moneymaker) if you want the advantages this presents, or there's enchanting - if you think you'll run into a lot of dustables. Skinning and mining are a little less worthwhile, although definitely better than a crafting skill. It all depends on your level of play and your playstyle. If you're a hardcore raider, you're probably not going to get a lot of mining done for your own personal use, if you're a hunter you might get more out of skinning - etc! Think this all through. Remember: if in doubt, a scan of the Auction House can cast some light on where the most gold is.